Dozens of animals including lions, bears and wolves have escaped from a wild animal preserve in Ohio where the owner was found dead.

Police on Tuesday found about 48 dangerous animals running loose at the Muskingum county animal farm in Zanesville, in east-central Ohio and shot dead about 25 of them, Muskingum county sheriff Matt Lutz said.

Among the animals shot were bears and wolves. "These are wild animals that you would see on TV in Africa," Lutz said.

He said a caretaker told authorities the preserve's 48 animals had been fed on Monday.

Police were continuing to patrol the 40-acre (16-hectare) farm and the surrounding areas in cars and were concerned about big cats and bears hiding in the dark and in trees.

"This is a bad situation," Lutz said. "It's been a situation for a long time."

Lutz said his office had started to get phone calls at about 5.30pm that wild animals were loose on a road that runs under Interstate 70.

He said four deputies with assault rifles in a truck went to the farm, where they found the owner, Terry Thompson, dead and all the animal cage doors open. He would not say how Thompson died but said several aggressive animals were near his body when deputies arrived and had to be shot.

Thompson, who lived on the property, had orangutans and chimps in his home, but they were still in their cages, Lutz said.

The deputies, who saw many other animals standing outside their cages and others that had escaped past the fencing surrounding the property, began shooting them on sight. They said there had been no reports of injuries among the public.

Staff from Columbus zoo went to the scene to tranquilise and capture the animals. The sheriff said caretakers might put food in the animals' open cages to try to lure them back.

Lutz said people should stay indoors and schools could be asked to close. At least four school districts in the area cancelled classes.

"Any kind of cat species or bear species is what we are concerned about," Lutz said. "We don't know how much of a headstart these animals have on us."

A spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, which usually handles native wildlife, such as deer, said state wildlife officers were helping the sheriff's office cope with the exotic animals in Zanesville, a city of about 25,000 residents.

"This is, I would say, unique," spokeswoman Laura Jones said.

Ohio has some of the nation's weakest restrictions on exotic pets and among the highest number of injuries and deaths caused by them.

In the summer of 2010, an animal caretaker was killed by a bear at a property in Cleveland during routine feeding.